Gateway's developer solicits proposals to build on 5 nearby sites

The South Campus Gateway development has had some success, but Doug Aschenbach knows it's still a work in progress.

The South Campus Gateway development has had some success, but Doug Aschenbach knows it’s still a work in progress.

Gateway opened in 2005 and features 184 apartments, an independent movie theater, a dozen modestly priced restaurants/bars and about 10 mostly student-

oriented stores, including the Barnes & Noble-run Ohio State University bookstore.

Still, Gateway remains too much of an island, said Aschenbach, president of Campus Partners, Ohio State’s nonprofit development arm.

“With Campus Gateway, we wanted to raise the bar in terms of retail and entertainment in the neighborhood,” he said from his office, upstairs from the Gateway Film Center. “We’ve done that. But what’s probably been most surprising and disappointing is the lack of customers coming from surrounding neighborhoods like Clintonville, Grandview (Heights) and the Short North.”

Now, Campus Partners is offering five chunks of land for development; they were assembled over the past decade and total about 9 acres in areas surrounding Campus Gateway. A “request for expressions of interest” went out to potential developers about 10?days ago.

Interested parties have until April 8 to submit proposals for one or more of the five “project areas,” which range from half an acre to 5.5?acres. The sites include empty lots and older retail buildings that are occupied by tenants on short-term leases.

Aschenbach said one great strength of his Campus Partners, founded by Ohio State in 1995, is the ability to be patient. The group has no specific blueprint in mind for the five parcels for which it’s seeking proposals, he said, and it might even issue a second call for proposals if it decides to refine its parameters based on initial responses.

“If we get a great idea that just clicks, we may go ahead. But we’d rather make sure we get it right rather than rushing it,” Aschenbach said.

One element that’s been a clear hit in the Gateway project is the addition of parking, something that developers will have to carefully consider for any future Gateway-area projects. The South Campus Gateway garage’s 1,200 parking spaces are heavily used and are becoming more popular as people become aware of the plentiful parking available for $1 an hour, said Campus Partners marketing director Erin Prosser. She said average peak use in the daytime is 800 vehicles; evenings average 550 at peak.

A few blocks from Gateway, parking has become a point of contention for a planned Edwards Cos. apartment complex. The Province, along 15th and 16th avenues near High Street, would have 445 bedrooms in 141 units.

Critics say the project’s proposed 238 parking spaces would not be nearly enough; 588 would be required by the “university overlay” planning rules adopted by the city in the early 1990s.

Campus Partners is somewhat modeled on what universities in other cities have done in striving to lift all boats with the rising tide by improving the neighborhood.

“You either have to build a wall or become engaged in your neighborhood,” Aschenbach said.

Neighborhood building is a tricky and lengthy proposition, he acknowledged. Many groups have a direct interest and say in what the group is doing, including the university, the city and community representatives from adjacent neighborhoods, including Weinland Park.

It’s also a game of chicken and egg: To attract more businesses, particularly national chains, a project such as Gateway must attract more customers.

Aschenbach said the movie theater is “the best mechanism for moving that needle,” which is one argument for the theater showing art-house fare. That doesn’t necessarily attract the masses but can draw a profitable niche of affluent adults.

Early on, the Gateway project lost an anchor tenant when Supervalu decided to close its small Sunflower Market natural-foods chain.

Other than in the largest cities, urban areas generally have struggled to attract grocery stores. Aschenbach said Sunflower was a loss but not a huge financial blow because Supervalu is on the hook for the remaining six years of the store’s 10-year lease.

He said Gateway doesn’t necessarily need to attract a new grocery because Kroger recently committed to a major renovation of its High Street store a couple of blocks to the south.

And because Kroger is willing to improve a store that has long been considered an eyesore between the Short North and campus, Aschenbach is eager to welcome it. Kroger’s plan to move the store closer to High Street and create a better amenity for the nearby Weinland Park and campus neighborhoods is in line with what he’s trying to do, too.

Continental hotels

Columbus-based Continental Real Estate recently finished a Hyatt Place hotel in Pittsburgh and has a SpringHill Suites hotel under construction on the former site of the Jai Lai and Buckeye Hall of Fame restaurants near OSU.

The recent hotel work demonstrates how the company has kept busy in the past couple of years by rolling with the economy’s punches, Continental Chairman Frank Kass said.

After the recession began, his company moved from “lifestyle center” retail and apartment construction to more work on hotels and student housing.

“We’re large enough that we survived, but small enough that we could change our stripes and adapt,” Kass said. “The banks are lending money again, though the criteria is different, and there are fewer people doing them. But I think construction’s certainly coming back from 2008 and 2009, which were very, very difficult.”

The 176-room Pittsburgh hotel was a venture with Columbus-based Rockbridge Partners. It is across from the central business district between Heinz Field and PNC Park, the homes of the NFL’s Steelers and Major League Baseball’s Pirates, respectively.

Next door, Continental also joined in building State AE, a $12 million entertainment complex similar to Lifestyle Communities Pavilion in Columbus. The venue has another Columbus connection: Its naming rights sponsor is American Eagle, led by Columbus retail mogul Jay Schottenstein.

The 136-room SpringHill Suites on Olentangy River Road is expected to open this summer, becoming one of several new or completely remodeled hotels in the neighborhood. Kass said demand in the area is being driven by Ohio State’s conversion of the former 243-room Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue into student housing. Demand gets a boost from the area’s proximity to Battelle and the expanding OSU medical center.

Continental is looking at building two other hotels in Columbus, starting late this year or early next, Kass said.

mrose@dispatch.com

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